Building a Data-Informed Evacuation Strategy

Growing Risk of Wind-Driven Fires

Situated along the Rocky Mountains with a large Wildland-Urban Interface, the Pikes Peak region of Colorado is home to Colorado Springs and the surrounding El Paso County, the state’s most populous county. While wildfire risk has always existed in the area, regional public safety officials and emergency managers are facing the growing threat of wind-driven fires. These rapidly moving fires can burn unpredictably, jumping fire lines and spreading faster than an evacuation can be planned. The Pikes Peak Regional Office of Emergency Management (PPROEM) needed an evacuation planning tool to ensure they were ready to protect their community if one of these dynamic fires were to occur. 

Challenging Assumptions with Ladris

To tackle this challenge, the PPROEM ran simulated evacuations through Ladris, which modeled traffic flow including identifying possible bottlenecks that could occur based on evacuation timing and route choices. According to some community simulations, prioritizing I-25 over nearby smaller roads may cut evacuation time by more than four hours, representing a 63% decrease relative to the observed scenario. During an unpredictable wind-driven fire, every second counts. Using insights from Ladris’ models to reduce evacuation time by hours could be the difference between life and death for many residents.

Over 50 agencies, departments, and jurisdictions came together to test and study these simulations. As the Pikes Peak region prepares to face the threat of wind-driven fires, the PPROEM can now utilize this collaborative, data-driven collection of evacuation scenarios to compare traffic management strategies and impacts, continuously improving their evacuation strategy. Emergency managers, public safety officials, law enforcement, fire districts, and partner organizations from across the region can leverage Ladris to supercharge an improved planning process that creates a common operating picture, utilizing all the available resources to ensure the safety of their community.